Media contacts:
Guild at Local Progress: localprogressguild@gmail.com
Kathleen Floyd, WBNG: kfloyd@wbng.org
WASHINGTON– The Guild at Local Progress is walking out today for 24 hours in response to management’s refusal to engage in reciprocal movement at the bargaining table. The Guild’s contract has been expired for more than 200 days.
Since bargaining began in February, Guild members have worked to turn staff priorities into responsive proposals, making difficult compromises along the way and reaching tentative agreements on several articles. The Guild has presented three comprehensive counter packages offering different combinations of wage increases and concessions on management priorities, including a no-strike, no-lockout provision.
Management has repeatedly declined to match that movement. After 16 hours of bargaining in the week of August 31, management responded with counters that reversed previously communicated positions and declared its positions “fixed and final.” Its latest counterproposal offered wage increases below the Guild’s previous package, would weaken paid time off protections, and would give management more discretion to deny leave. Management has also reopened questions that were previously agreed upon around working hours while tying those changes to wages. In addition, Management has stopped meeting during work hours, a break from the ground rules both sides have followed since February, and when the Guild offered nine hours of bargaining time, management agreed to only one.
“Local Progress is only as strong as the staff who do the work behind it,” said the Guild. “A contract that keeps people here and pays them fairly is the minimum we should expect from a political home that champions worker rights.”
The LP Guild has negotiated in good faith, made concessions, and demonstrated a willingness to move. But the ability to reach a contract cannot depend on workers continually finding new ways to accommodate management’s priorities without reciprocal movement.
To support these workers, sign on to their petition and donate to their strike fund.
ABOUT THE GUILD AT LOCAL PROGRESS
The Guild at Local Progress is a unit of organizers, communication professionals, fundraisers, policy specialists, legal fellows, and data and operations managers. They received voluntary recognition in March of 2022 and signed their first collective bargaining agreement in April of 2023. Their contract upholds the value of treating workers as whole people by creating sustainable work schedules with a 32 hour work week, and providing adequate and equitable pay. The Guild supports and protects all members by prioritizing racial justice and equity, gender inclusion, and a healthy work environment.
ABOUT THE WASHINGTON-BALTIMORE NEWS GUILD
The Washington-Baltimore News Guild, Local 32035 of the Communications Workers of America, the union for more than 3,000 news, information, nonprofit and labor organization workers in the mid-Atlantic and beyond, including the Washington Post, AFL-CIO, POLITICO and the American Nurses Association (ANA). Together, we hold our employers accountable and ensure that our workplaces reflect our values, which include ensuring everyone is free from harassment and retaliation, earns equal pay for equal work and has a voice in their workplace.